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NY Gentrified

Another liberal spouting how gentrification is bad. Do we want to live in the 80s where crime, drugs, and gangs in NY were rampant? I remembered going into Chinatown and getting robbed in broad daylight during my childhood in the 80s. My mom would warn me about the dangers of stepping out of the house. Back then, many families wanted to move so their kids could be safe from all the filth and horrors of the city. Yes, gone are the days of the funky music scene that once dominated lower Manhattan. Gone are the days of of the pizzerias that served unbeatable slices of pizza for less than a buck. We all have nostalgia for the past, but we need to go forward as humans are evolving.

Change is inevitable and one always hopes that it's for the better. Unfortunately, the city has morphed into a suburban mall. The wide societal disparities within NYC are palpable. And the town's homogenization has become extreme. Yes, the diversity of nationalities here is still probably the greatest in the world. But their intermingling is limited to very small domains. Regardless of how this town got to this point, the old NYC of whichever era one belongs to--50's, 60's, 70's, 80's--is not coming back.

Most young people who come here now are bland, midwestern frat and sorority types who work in finance and law. take a look at all the frat and faux Irish pubs on 2nd Avenue from 96th Street to the East Village and beyond. These are not the artists of yesteryear. They are the folks who have the resources to live in Manhattan, go to restaurants/bars, and find all the Duane Reades convenient rather than annoying. Other than their consumerism, they contribute nothing to the city. In a few years. most will leave, only to be replaced by others just like them, or perhaps worse.

Yes, young artists can live in Bushwick for now, but eventually they'll have to go too.

I spent alot of time in the late '70's near the Chelsea Public Health Clinic with an epidemiologist. In that pre-AIDS era the Clinic was one of the highest volume STD centers in the country. In December, while looking for Jim Lahey's resturant, Co. on 24th Street, I had to ask locals for directions. I was surprised to encounter a largely young professional population heading home on a Friday night after a stop at Whole Foods.It wasn't the overtly "hipster" neighborhood I remembered. Prof. Schulman's 80K NYC AIDS mortality statistic at the top of the program stunned me. I would never have made a link between the changed demographics in Chelsea and AIDS w/out this interview. Important work.

The guest did not say the city is less diverse. I agree that this city is more minority and diverse than it used to be AND,not mentioned, while crime has gone down.. So minorities are not criminals.

The guest's point is that thinking and behavior and neighborhoods have become more homegenic and isolated and the City is much more segregated then before - We are almost at the Third World model of cities- Very wealthy communities closed in and gated; a small struggling middle class; and a mass of poor people in segregated areas who as much as they work and try to escape are unable to move up the economic ladder as they have no access to effective goverment services (education, transportation, police protection) and are treated with a heavy hand living under the weight of corruption, unresponsiveness and violence from the state. -

Just look at extra judicial executions of an 18 yo for having a small bag of pot or the extra judicial execution of a groom for being roudy in a bar while on a bachelor party..

I grew up in lower Manhattan in the '70's. I miss the NYC I knew. Rent stabilization is the only thing that's kept the hot neighborhoods even remotely interesting.

However, I will say that the subways are much better now; I remember subway cars covered inside and out with graffiti and not the cool kind. I commuted to school and it was truly horrible. Are the benefits of an increased tax base fairly distributed? NO. But there have been improvements in mass transit.

I appreciate the host and the guest slowing down and giving thought to this. The guest makes a telling point by noting the huge deficit in public sector funding that doesn't accord with the "increase the tax base" policy. Richest city with the worst public schools. I understand the host's consistent devil's advocate approach or perhaps true incredulousness because it is hard to believe the weight and speed of these migrations and the resulting homogenization. For examply, she mentions Bushwick and Bedford Stuyvesant as exceptions where young artists can live, but these are clear cases of wealth and high income settlement, not art incursion, and that with a marked ethnicity component - ny times notes 633% increase in white population in less than 2 years - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/nyregion/in-bedford-stuyvesant-a-black-stronghold-a-growing-pool-of-whites.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all while rents stay high. The result is systemic displacement.

I have lived in Park Slope for 30 years and I liked it much better in the old days. Back in the 80s New York Magazine chose it as the most successfully diverse neighborhood in all of New York where everyone got along. Nowadays as Colin Quinn (who grew up here) says "It looks like Switzerland. The black faces you are likely to see are the white kids nannies". That's a little extreme but it has taken on a suburban feel with all the young parents. And those stroller parents stroll around with such an air of superiority and entitlement. I'm a painter. We used to have lots of artists, musicians and actors. Now we have suburban parents. I'm guessing they work in new media.We do have a Starbucks now and an Asian fusion restaurant. And you can get kid cappuchinos.

This is totally ridiculous. You can still move to the bronx. East NY is still very affordable, has subways, very diverse and filled with all kinds of interesting artist. Lets just have a giant whine party since we all can't afford to move to downtown manhattan. Are you people even listening to yourselves?

One last thing. I especially like the guest decreeing that everyone in the suburbs is a conformist, security at the expense of life desiring, car driving sheep. Leave NYC much? Talk to anyone unlike you, Ms. Schulman? You're as bad as those you insult, but at least they own their beliefs.

HiI am an Artist and moved to new york in the early 90s straight from Art School.A year ago I moved to Philadelphia because NY has become a fancy suburb.I am sad at the homogenous nature of NY now.I couldn't live in NY anymore even as my life has become more stable and financially secure, because I couldn't accept that my city had become the playground of the rich and a place for suburban kids to change into their suburbs...

Starting with the changes of time square to the complete destruction of ethnic neighborhoods in Manhattan. that the shell of Chinatown still exist is only due to its nonthreatening 'quaintness'.

My NY is long gone, what is left is a fancy shopping center with some dusty corners.

(1)many of these new higher income workers spend a large amount of their post-tax income on rent and student loans. They can't do much retail spending and it will effect the City's sales tax collection

(2)much of the real estate in the richest areas of the City are owned by individuals and corporations that don't live in the City. The City collects higher real estate tax but they're not collecting any income or sales taxes and they're not contributing to the economy of the city since they're not here.

(3)the City has given away BILLIONS in tax breaks and subsidies to big businesses.

New York is still very diverse. I grew up on the egdes of an Italian and Jewish neighborhoods. A bus/trin ride I'm in Chinatown Little Brazil, etc. What are we talking about? I now live in Missouri where there is no diversity.

Andrea, you should listen to Sarah. She was right on!. This 'additional' tax base IS NOT going to public services.

You should know better than most that most of the tax funding for public transit has been diverted for other things while the burden is passed on to commuters while transit is being reduced.

Have you taken a look at the current property tax distortions that exist today?

Just take a look at the records in Queens where new crappy construction with more units are paying ONE FOURTH the RE taxes then someone like me..

I currently pay more in RE taxes for a coop in queens than Alex Rodriguez pays for a luxury apt in Manhattan which he pays for on an inflated salary that is subsidized by the tax payer and plays in a stadium subsidized by the taxpayer. If you don't see the distortions and redistribution of wealth for the connected then you need to get out of the station and start looking at the data out there.

Hospitals are failing because almost two thirds of the patients are Medicare or Medicaid. Ask anyone who works at a hospital, and they'll tell you for community hospitals to succeed they need to attract privately insured patients

Jgarbuz- It sure seems to me that your comment cdould be filed under whiny complaining. I would say that regarding all this "whining by liberals" .....deal with it. Life is unfair. And you can always go over to Fox and listen to all the whining by Rush and Beck and all those blatering complainers. You'd probably be much happier there.

What total utter drivel. I remember the city in the 80s and the artist who had no money didn't make this a happy la la land this woman seems to think it was. I remember a woman who had to walk out of the lower east in labor because cabs wouldn't go there. Someone please tell this woman all the "artist" who deserver free luxury housing should move to fantasy land with her.

I think Sarah Shulman would be more effective if she changed her tone. Question for her, does she want another collapse or a total financial collapse? So real estate prices would drop and people in finance would struggle?

I find it pretty obnoxious how this lady on the air can speak without a hint of irony in regard to a "there goes the neighborhood" mentality; and it's okay because it's upper-middle-class 'white' people she's speaking about pejoratively. It's just racist. If she were speaking about any other 'ethnic' or class group ruining a neighborhood and killing the local spirits with its very presence, she'd be shamed.

Eh, young artists can still come here and afford to if they have hustle. What, they're supposed to just be able to not work and survive making art because they call themselves an artist? I came of age in the early 90's, lived in the city, and as a writer and filmmaker worked 2 paying jobs, not related to my creative endeavors, to pay my rent. I still had time to work on my projects. Young people can rent places in Bushwick, Bed Stuy, and northern Manhattan and still pay $600 each.

That said, I do agree this city has changed in its vibe and attitude - it's very, very consumer-oriented, and the influx of wealth and wealthy people changes the dynamic and types of entertainment options, retail and restaurants. It's sadly ironic that there's more wealth in the city, yet many long-standing arts-organizations cannot continue to fund their ventures. We can partly blame our Mayor for branding this city as a playpen of the wealthy and their children.

I moved to NYC from Miami, FL in June 2010. I've only visited NYC twice (for two weekends) before my move. I did not know anyone and had no relatives. I'm a somewhat established songwriter but doesn't have income from it. Still I was able to find a job (went through two jobs before I settled at my current position), a music internship, and (a year and few months after my move)my own place by November, 2011 (in East Harlem - yes, I am a 'gentrify-er'). It it/has been hard but the notion that creative types can't afford the NYC (something that was constantly repeated to me before my move) is not true in my experience. I am still in school getting my BA so without a high school diploma in the middle of a recession I think my story shows that creative types will always be drawn to NYC and will make the best of their situations.

Thanks Martin.. you are right.. This is like Paris and London that are highly segregated. But I think we are heading more to the Brazil model where the state/police violence against the poor is more sustained..

Just look at the increase in the number of extra judicial executions being carried out by the police while our political 'leaders' ignore the violence.

Come to Brooklyn, neighborhoods that were Italian are now more Asian / Russian. Staten Island is busting at the seams with all those italians. Dominicans uptown no diversity? I see gentricifaction is a positive force, more shops better housing. Sure starving artists can't make as easily as they did. They all moved to Portland!

Is the city less diverse? I don't think so, it seems there is more diversity as different races and cultures. Not sure how she is defining "diversity" Would be nice if the host would ask her that.

Is the city segregated? Most definitely, no question.

Has the city lost some of it's character? Definitely. And the city has become extremely hard for artists and other creative people to survive here which makes it a less friendly place for such people, which is killing the city's character, making it more sterile, etc.

Plus, some areas have become a little strip mall like which of course lessens the character and uniqueness of New York.

On the Upper West Side, where I've lived since 1969, Mitchell-Lama buildings were examples of completely integrated housing. Now that the housing is all being privatized, the people moving out are primarily those of color, as the neighborhood whitens.

As a white woman with an Indian husband, it was important for my family to live in a multi-racial neighborhood. Our Mitchell-Lama was a haven - but now privatized, it is becoming less so.

Finally, I can't understand why those with AIDS who can't work are not getting the same "affordable housing" subsidy (paying no more than 1/3 of their income) as other people in difficult straits.

Listening to these constantly whining Liberals makes me sick! Just a bunch of dissatisfied malcontents who will never be content to leave things well enough alone. That the media thinks that constant whining has entertainment value. Well, I'm sick of listening to 60 years of non-stop whining by Liberals. Life is unfair; deal with it.

The last caller has no idea of the structural and institutional factors that limit the options of many individuals, especially those living in low-income neighborhoods. That concept of 'personal responsibility'..um yeah..It's not that simple man.

it is sad that we are seeing a City that is highly segregated with very wealthy and very poor and a police state repressing minorities and the poor- (Think Rio de Janeiro,Sao Paulo in the 80's/90's)

She makes an excellent point about the reduction in public transit and the distortion in the tax base.. Though we have more VERY wealthy people, we don't necessarily have an increased tax base since we have huge subsidies being provided to Real Estate developers and the rich and also though we have more wealthy people we also have more poor people working minimum wage. So our tax base has declined because we have a dying middle class

No doubt the city has changed since the 80s, but this is nonsense. The city has never been more diverse, by any measure. The guest is basing her thesis on her own observations and experiences and has nothing to do with actual demographics.

Happened so fast. Before happily moving out I cursed Guilliani but I don't know if he deserves all the blame, the city is so much prettier now but it's a new place, certainly not NYC of the last 300 years, a place i miss so much

Not sure the creativity is gone but certain aspects of NYC life that contributed to creativity in say the 1970's have changed. Thinking specifically about the mix of communities, income levels, and industries. For instance SOHO was an industrial area and if memory servers some of Richard Sera's early work was done with discarded industrial scrap materials found on the street.

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